Smoking Gun: Where the Money Goes

Even in the era of Super PACs, pundits watch how much candidates raise for their campaigns. But they often overlook how the money is spent. Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that, through September 30, the twenty-one candidates for President collectively made about 45,000 individual expenditures totaling more than $150 million. We looked through the listings and found a few favorites.

Data on campaign expenditures and receipts can be found using the “Candidate & Committee Viewer” on the Federal Election Commission’s Campaign Finance Disclosure Portal.